Written by one of the top game designers in the world, The Art of Game Design presents 116 sets of questions, or lenses, for examining the design of a game, covering various fields such as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, puzzle design, and anthropology.

This special anniversary edition of the award-winning Game Developer Front Line Award book:

• Describes the deeper and more fundamental principles of game design.
• Demonstrates how the tactics used in board games, card games, and sports games apply to top video games as well.
• Includes a new chapter on best practices in virtual and augmented reality games.
• Contains over a hundred color illustrations, one for each lens.
• Shares with the reader the valuable insights of Jesse Schell, former president of the International Game Developers Association and distinguished professor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University.

Contents:

• In the beginning, there is the designer
• The designer creates an experience
• The experience takes place in a location
• The experience arises from a game
• The game consists of elements
• The elements support a theme
• The game begins with an idea
• The game improves through iteration
• The game is made for a player
• The experience lies in the mind of the player
• The mind of the player is driven by their motivation
• Some elements pertain to the mechanics
• The mechanics of the game must be balanced
• The mechanics of the game support puzzles
• Players play games through an interface
• Experiences can be judged by interest curves
• One kind of experience is the story
• The structures of stories and games can be skillfully merged with indirect control
• Stories and games take place in worlds
• Worlds contain characters
• Worlds contain spaces
• Some interfaces create a sense of presence
• The appearance and feel of a world is defined by its aesthetics
• Some games are played with other players
• Other players sometimes form communities
• The designer typically collaborates with a team
• The team sometimes communicates through documents
• Good games are created through playtesting
• The team makes a game using technology
• Your game will likely have a client
• The designer promotes
• The designer and the client want the game to be profitable
• Games transform their players
• Designers have certain responsibilities
• Every designer has a purpose